Live in Lincoln Park
A 1.5 km² pocket built on a WWII airfield, now almost entirely Mount Royal University's campus and its surrounding rental apartments.
Lincoln Park first appears in the City's own population records in 1968, on land that was Royal Canadian Air Force Station Calgary until 1964: 1.5 km², 1,590 residents in 930 dwellings at the 2021 census, with 60% of households renting. Mount Royal University's main campus opened here in 1972 on the levelled former airfield itself, and the university remains the community's entire reason for being — there is little else here beyond a scattering of condo blocks and ATCO's industrial park. The honest tension is that Lincoln Park barely functions as a residential neighbourhood in the usual sense: 58% of its households are a single person, and most of what looks like community amenity is really campus amenity shared with a floating student population. This is what living here is actually like.
A campus community on a levelled WWII airfield
Bounded by Glenmore Trail to the north, Crowchild Trail to the east, Richardson Way SW to the south, and 37 Street SW to the west. Ward 11.
Lincoln Park first appears in the City's own population records in 1968, four years after Royal Canadian Air Force Station Calgary closed on the same land. At the 2021 census: 1.5 km², 1,590 residents in 930 dwellings, with 60% of households renting.
One institution, one community. Mount Royal University opened its main campus here in 1972, built on the airfield's levelled runways, and it has driven almost everything since. There is no old town centre, no legacy retail strip, and very little beyond the campus, a ring of condo and apartment blocks, and ATCO's industrial park to the south.
The population reflects it: 58% of households are a single person, well above the city average, and the community empties out and refills with the university's own calendar rather than a conventional school year.
What it costs. Median household income was $57,200 in 2020 — well below the city median — which tracks with a renter-heavy, campus-adjacent population rather than a family neighbourhood.
- 60% rental and 58% one-person households mean real turnover — check lease terms and condo documents carefully
- No CBE or Catholic school sits inside the community — confirm the designation for a specific address
- The former airfield's flat, open ground means little tree cover and real wind exposure
- Amenity here is largely campus amenity, tied to Mount Royal's term calendar rather than a normal retail base
How Lincoln Park got here
- 1940RCAF Station Calgary opens on the site as a Second World War airfield and training school.
- 1964RCAF Station Lincoln Park closes; the airfield's runways are decommissioned.
- 1968The City's own population records first list Lincoln Park as a community, with no residents yet recorded.
- 1972Mount Royal College opens its Lincoln Park campus on the levelled airfield, relocating from downtown.
- 1998Canadian Forces Base Calgary announces closure, launching the Currie Barracks and Garrison Woods redevelopment next door.
- 2021Federal census records 1,590 residents in 930 dwellings, 60% of it rental.
The nearest real park sits across Crowchild Trail
Lincoln Park itself has no park of its own — the levelled former airfield is now campus and parking. The nearest substantial green space is the Glenmore Reservoir and the Weaselhead natural area, a short drive east across Crowchild Trail, with Optimist Athletic Park's diamonds closer to hand on Bow Trail.
The resident's angle: if green space matters to you day to day, you are driving or cycling out of the community for it — there is nothing to walk to inside Lincoln Park's own boundary.
13 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 13 places, nearest first.
Method: distances and drive times are estimated from the centre of the community to each destination using Calgary's road grid, and are rounded to honest ranges rather than presented as precise figures. Almost everything on this list is either on campus or a drive away — there is very little in between.
Every gym within reach
Mount Royal's own recreation centre covers most of what a resident needs. Confirm public membership hours before you count on anything, since student terms take priority.
- Triple gymnasium, pool, fitness centre and studios, with public memberships available
- Optimist Athletic Park is the free option for open fields, north on Bow Trail
- Westhills and Signal Hill add commercial gyms a short drive west
- Repsol Sport Centre is the closest large-scale facility, well across the city
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Royal University Recreation open | Triple gymnasium, pool, fitness centre and studios, with public memberships available. | 1–2 min |
| Optimist Athletic Park pathways open | Free option: open fields and pathway access north on Bow Trail. | 5–8 min |
| Westhills and Signal Hill commercial gyms open | Cluster of commercial fitness chains around the Westhills and Signal Hill lots. | 4–6 min |
| Repsol Sport Centre open | Fifty-metre pool, diving towers and a large fitness floor at Lindsay Park, across the city. | 16–22 min |
The campus does the daily work — outside of Mount Royal's own facility, this is a driving community for fitness, not a walking one.
A university, and not much else
Mount Royal University is the community's only school of any kind sitting inside its boundary. No CBE or Catholic elementary, junior high or senior high sits inside Lincoln Park itself.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Royal University | Post-secondary | Full university campus inside the community, on the site of the former airfield. |
| Master's Academy & College | Private (independent) | K–12 Christian school just east in Garrison Woods, not a public or Catholic board option. |
| Designated CBE schools | Calgary Board of Education | No CBE elementary, junior or senior high sits inside Lincoln Park; confirm the current designation for a specific address. |
| Designated Catholic schools | Calgary Catholic School District | No Catholic school sits inside Lincoln Park; confirm the designation for a specific address. |
Alberta funds Catholic education the same way it funds public education, so there is no tuition for a resident student at either board. Confirm the designation for a specific address before you buy — with no school inside the community, families are entirely dependent on the surrounding neighbourhoods' designations.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel — the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- MRU's winter term starts mid-month, and the open former airfield gives the campus no windbreak from the cold
- Richardson Way and 37 Street get plowed only after the arterials
- The high share of one-person households means many units sit dark during the day
- Grey Eagle's casino floor is the closest indoor evening option, a short drive west
- Reading week empties the MRU parking lots for a week
- A chinook can strip the open campus grounds to bare pavement in an afternoon
- Ski traffic on Glenmore Trail and Crowchild Trail builds on Friday afternoons
- The coldest week of the year often lands here rather than in January
- Melt runs off the flat campus grounds faster than it does on the older, treed streets nearby
- MRU's open-house season for prospective students brings weekend traffic to the community
- Cleats are the right footwear on the exposed walkways between the parking lots and the buildings
- Optimist Athletic Park's infield turns to mud weeks before it's playable
- MRU's winter term wraps and residence move-out loads vehicles along Richard Road for a week
- Weaselhead's cottonwoods bud out first, visible east across Crowchild Trail
- Garden centres at Westhills open for the season
- Last hard frosts pass before Signal Hill's outdoor patios open
- Convocation traffic fills the campus lots for two weeks running
- Long evenings put the Glenmore Trail rush hour back into daylight
- The exposed former airfield turns green fast once the frost is out of it
- Grey Eagle's outdoor patio season opens a short drive west
- MRU's campus empties out between spring and fall terms, and the community goes quiet with it
- Weaselhead's trails see their heaviest cyclist traffic of the year, a short ride east
- Thunderstorms building over the foothills are visible across the open campus grounds
- Optimist Athletic Park's diamonds book out most weeknights for league play
- Stampede traffic backs up the Crowchild Trail interchange for the full ten days
- The exposed campus grounds run hot with no tree cover most afternoons
- Grey Eagle's summer concert season draws evening traffic west on Glenmore Trail
- Westhills' parking lots are busiest of the year over Stampede weekend
- The lull before MRU's fall term is the quietest the community gets all year
- Rental listings start appearing early for the university's September turnover
- Wildfire haze can settle over the open airfield grounds on windless days
- Optimist Athletic Park winds its league season down before September
- MRU's fall term starts and the campus lots fill for the first time in three months
- September is the real moving month here, with 60% of households renting
- Morning traffic thickens on Crowchild and Glenmore Trail with the term restart
- First frost typically arrives on the exposed campus grounds before it reaches the sheltered streets nearby
- Peak colour is thin here — the former airfield never grew the tree canopy older communities have
- MRU's mid-term traffic settles into its steady autumn rhythm
- Snow tires go on before the first real snowfall reaches the exposed campus
- Weaselhead's aspens turn first, visible east across Crowchild Trail
- Dark commutes mean the Crowchild Trail interchange lights come on before five
- MRU's winter-term rental listings start appearing for the January intake
- Wind off the open former airfield makes the campus feel colder than the forecast
- Grey Eagle's holiday events draw evening traffic west
- MRU's campus empties out for the winter break, and the whole community quiets with it
- A chinook can clear the exposed grounds to bare pavement in an afternoon
- Outdoor rinks in neighbouring Rutland Park open once the freeze holds
- Quiet, short days on a pocket dominated by a single institution
36 photographs of the community and its surroundings
All freely licensed and served from this app — nothing loads from a third party. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 36 photographs.
Honesty note. This page uses only the general Calgary, seasonal, Alberta-wildlife and day-trip photography from the site's shared library. Nothing here is presented as a photograph of Lincoln Park itself.